Friday, April 6, 2018

Stake Play - The Greatest Show

The biggest, most challenging, stressful, but absolutely amazing experience we had in March was Stake Play. In our church, several congregations based on location make up a "stake." For Stake Play, we gathered up all the youth ages 12-18 & put on a HUGE road show style play for the community. We had about 230 youth, 85 adults, over 500 costumes, & 3 months of extremely dedicated hard work in rehearsals.

It was a BLAST. These kids were put into about 3 numbers each & they got to learn things they'd never even dream of attempting. Some kids learned Bollywood dancing, others clogging. There was hip-hop, ballroom, singing, dancing, a full on drumline number (that was the one I directed), a full comedy routine, even Mario made an appearance. The theme for the entire show was

"THE GREATEST SHOW"

which was perfect.

For the opening number, Cadence got the chance to be the "bearded lady." She loved that. And Lórien got to be in the front of the stage as well as a dancer. The opening number was "This is the Greatest Show" from the movie "The Greatest Showman." I got a chance to help with the organization & choreography for it. It was a ton of fun.

I'm adding links to the videos of closing night. Eventually we'll have a digital copy of the entire play & I'll post that on here as well so you can see how amazing the whole thing was in its entirety.

The girls made SO MANY FRIENDS. Everyone was put into numbers that weren't they're usual "group of friends" which forced them to meet new people. I was amazing at how many new friendships were formed over the 3 months of rehearsals.

Just look at the sheer number of costumes hanging in this hallway. And this wasn't even all of them. It was INSANE.

Lórien was also in the Deacon/Beehive (12-13 year old) number. Their age group only got to be in the opening & closing numbers & the deacon/beehive number, bringing their total to 3. Lorien danced to "I Will Get Back Up Again" from the movie trolls & she was ADORABLE up there.

Cadence got to be in the opening & closing numbers, as well as 3 others for a total of 5. She was in a number called "True Colors" (from Trolls) where she learned how to do contemporary dance. It was a stretch for her little awkward self, but she did a really great job & even survived a nerve wracking trust fall in the middle of the song.

I was the producer of this number which means I helped with the props & costumes. I have been SO busy so I opted to buy the costumes with my budget rather than make them. I think the dresses were perfect for this type of dance. It was really beautiful on the stage.

Cadence was also in the comedy number "Moving Right Along." Though the jokes got old after months & months of practicing, the delivery & performance on stage was hilarious. It actually was one of the favorites of the show. She really had to break out of her shy shell to be silly on stage.

The 3rd number Cadence was in was my boys' favorite of the whole play. It was a Mario Brother's themed hip hop dance & it was SO COOL. All the kids were dressed at toad with the main Mario characters leading the storyline of the dance. Cadence had the most fun with this dance & she learned a lot about hip-hop movement.

And finally, I was asked to direct a number for the play. I got to work with the amazing Johnathan McPhie & we put together a Star Wars themed drumline number using wood, drumsticks, & boom whackers. Most of these kids had never read music before & in 3 months we were amazingly able to teach them "The Imperial March" & "Star Wars Main Theme" along with drumming, sticking, & rhythm. They did a great job & I coudn't have been prouder of them all.

Though it was a crazy busy 3 months & hours & hours & hours of work were involved, this was proabably one of the best experiences of my entire life. I love the theater, I love music, I love costumes, & I love seeing my kids perform on stage.